by The Honourable A. Brian Peckford
December 29, 2022
I wake up almost every morning thinking of this abomination!
Parliament voluntarily giving up its power!
One of the most egregious acts of Parliament in the modern era by providing in law, legislation which mandates that the Federal Government can conduct conflict of interest measures like an inquiry , to examine itself.
Can you imagine the Parliament of Canada actually, deliberately bestowing power by law upon the Government to examine itself?
That’s what happened when the Emergencies Act was introduced to replace the War Measures Act by the Conservative Government of Brian Mulroney.
So the whole idea was/is that if the Government of the Day invokes this Act —declares an emergency and gains all this extra powers that when it is all over, there is to be an Inquiry to determine whether the Government acted properly under the Act .
Here is the Authority The Parliament ‘gave’ to the Government to examine itself.
- 63 (1) The Governor in Council shall, within sixty days after the expiration or revocation of a declaration of emergency, cause an inquiry to be held into the circumstances that led to the declaration being issued and the measures taken for dealing with the emergency
- Report to Parliament
(2) A report of an inquiry held pursuant to this section shall be laid before each House of Parliament within three hundred and sixty days after the expiration or revocation of the declaration of emergency.
For those unversed in Government terminology The Governor Of Council means the Cabinet—essentially the Government.
This Act was introduced by the Honourable Perrin Beatty who was the Defence Minister at the time.
It is under this Section 63(1) the the Trudeau Government earlier this year outlined the terms of reference and appointed a Commissioner.
And if it is possible , it gets worse!!!!
Everybody goes along with this charade !!!
As if it has some semblance of legitimacy.
A Government examining itself.
THIS NEW NORMAL IS A CONTRADICTION OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT !
When reformers were campaigning for legislatures before Confederation they were campaigning for representative government , citizens were to have a voice through a duly elected legislature.
But more , they were also campaigning for responsible government where the Cabinet of the Government of the Day would be composed of people who were elected to that legislature . In other words accountability of the Government to the legislature or Parliament.
Nova Scotia achieved Responsible Government in January 1848, and in March of the same year the Province of Canada( Ontario and Quebec) and New Brunswick and three years later Prince Edward Island and in 1855 Newfoundland.
So are we now having Parliament retreating to the 1840’s —by giving up the power that was hard won even before Confederation?
